Badlands TPB
Filled to bursting with sex, violence, secrets, and violent sexual secrets, Badlands is a first-rate crime drama that revolves around the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas in 1963.
Steven Grant's script is tight and grounded, with a diverse cast of characters that includes a luckless ex-con, an underage sex kitten and some powerful businessmen who plan to bring the ship of state back on course from where they believe JFK has allowed it to drift. Vince Giarrano's gritty, realistic artwork has echoes of David Mazzucchelli's mainstream work, as perhaps inked by Dick Giordano.
Despite numerous movies and at least a couple of novels, not to mention actual, non-fiction investigations, the JFK assassination remains a fascinating, unknowable mystery that will probably never be solved with any definitive explanation. I like how Grant eschews any sort of pretension of actually revealing the hidden secrets of this tragic moment, but rather creates events and characters that are interesting and complex on their own terms. Giarrano's a great choice to illustrate the story, and I'd love to see more work from this team in the near future.
In all, Badlands is an involving novel nicely wrapped in a stunning Brian Wood cover. I've come to expect very, very high quality books from Ait-Planet Lar, and publisher Larry Young exceeds expectations with this edition. A great historical fiction that, in the way of some other noteworthy graphic novels, tells a truth all its own. Grade: 4.5/5